Paphos municipality’s mishandling of three EU-funded construction projects will cost the city an unnecessary €2.5 million, opposition councillors alleged on Monday — after sitting on the problem for 18 months without informing the full council.
The DIKO municipal group tabled a formal complaint at Monday evening’s Paphos Municipal Council plenary, accusing the local authority of mismanaging three ongoing projects and allowing a European body to strip two of them of their funding.
The projects are the Historical Documentation Centre, nearing completion at Kennedy Square, and regeneration works at the Anavargos neighbourhood and the city’s southern commercial district.
Paphos municipality signed a €11,797,528 loan agreement with the Republic of Cyprus and the European Investment Bank on 10 October 2024 to finance the Historical Documentation Centre.
The Anavargos and southern commercial centre works, along with Theoskepasti Square regeneration, were separately co-funded through the Thalia 2021-2027 European programme.
During construction, the Directorate of European Funds identified accessibility problems with the Anavargos and Theoskepasti works and pulled both from the Thalia programme. According to the DIKO complaint, those findings and related talks with the Ministry of Interior have been unresolved for roughly 18 months — yet the council plenary is only now being told.
With no other project ready to step in, the Directorate proposed putting the Historical Documentation Centre in their place — but the centre was already declared as funded by the EIB loan, meaning adding it to the Thalia programme would constitute illegal double funding.
The only solution, DIKO said, was to redirect the EIB loan to cover the Anavargos and southern commercial centre works instead, at a cost of approximately €9.3 million.
The remaining roughly €2.5 million will go towards other municipal projects, including the Natural History Museum and Market canopies.
The Municipal Council voted to approve the arrangement, citing force majeure. DIKO, however, condemned the lack of transparency and mismanagement that has saddled the city with extra debt — and noted the vote came under pressure from penalty clauses and the imminent provisional handover of the Historical Documentation Centre.
DIKO put the bill for the delays at roughly €2.5 million — money it said proper planning would have saved entirely.